As a musician, your most important source of information and inspiration is recordings and live concerts by great players. It is important to listen to different styles of music. Even though you may have a favorite style, the best players in any style have influences which come from other styles.
Don’t just listen to current players. Go back and listen to the earlier players who invented and developed the sounds and techniques of the guitar as a soloing instrument, particularly Blues players, as most of today’s lead guitar techniques originated with them.
The lists below should give you a good idea of who to listen to for great lead guitar playing in a variety of styles. Of course, there are many other great players, but the players shown here will get you on the right track immediately .
Blues: BB King, Otis Rush, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Freddy King, Gatemouth Brown, Magic Sam, Ughtnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan, Debbie Davies, Peter Green, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford and Ronnie Earl.
Rock/Pop: Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix (a major innovator), Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd (featuring three guitars skillfully arranged), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) Angus and Malcolm Young of ACDC, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Tony lommi (Black Sabbath) Nancy Wilson of Heart, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May (Queen), Mark Knopfler (with Dire Straits and solo), Gary Moore, Jeff Beck, Uta Ford, Jennifer Batten, Slash (Guns "n" Roses) Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, and also James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica.
Soul/Funk: Leo Nocentelli (The Meters) Cornell Dupree, Eric Gale, Nile Rogers (Chic) and the various guitarists who have played with James Brown and Pariiament/Funkadelic.
Country: Roy Nichols (with Merle Haggard) James Burton, Roy Buchanan, Robbie Robertson (The Band), Clarence White, Albert Lee, Arlen Roth, Jerry Donahue, Vince Gill and Brent Mason.
Jazz: Lonnie Johnson, Django Rinehardt, Charlie Christian, George Barnes, Herb Ellis, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Grant Green, Tal Farlow, Jim Hall, Pat Metheney, John Abercrombie, John McLaughlin and Emily Remler.
Modern Jazz/Fusion: John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Mike Stern, Sonny Sharrock, James Blood Ulmer, AI Dimeola, Larry Carlton, Frank Gambale, and Scott Henderson (with Tribal Tech and solo).